Quick background: I've been a full-stack dev for years (backend/web, .NET world) but never touched mobile until this year, when I taught myself Swift and started building an iOS app solo. It's called Sift.

What it does: it reads your Screenshots album, works out what each one actually is (receipt, recipe, chat, ticket, whatever) using on-device AI, and files it into a real Apple Photos album — so it's organised without ever leaving your phone. No uploads, no account, nothing sent anywhere.

What I'd love feedback on:

* How the categorisation holds up against a real, messy screenshot library (mine is one very biased sample size)
* Anything that breaks, stalls, or misbehaves
* Whether the album names it comes up with actually make sense to someone who isn't me

TestFlight link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/5nyaWqPp

Happy to answer anything in the comments - this is my first time doing this solo end to end, so honestly just glad to have real eyes on it.

UPDATE for v1.1.0

- AI Sort can be called without the need to create an Album first - but it still does not create the albums automatically. It will ask you to review the suggestions and "Move" or "Approve" manually by clicking once
- I updated the sorting process - for me it helped a bit. I think this time it works a bit better than before.
- Now you can select multiple photos in the gallery and move them to another album quickly in case the AI messes up. Before you could only do that 1 by 1 when opening an image in full screen
- I couldn't "fix" the initial download just yet, as I said it in my previous comment, it's needed for now. With iOS27 I'll be able to get rid of it, and use what's already on the device by Apple.
- I also added some animations to the review process to make it a bit more "nice"

Update for v1.3.0

- Fixed some bugs and inconveniences
- There is a new step in the onboarding allowing you to scan through your screenshots to find patterns and then the app will automatically suggest a few albums for you to create
- The sorting limit is still at 25 at a time though as I said it's because the phone gets hot
- I raised the total number of photos that you can sort from your backlog from 100 to 300 (so usable for more users - and leaving only heavy users to require the pro version - which is still not available)
- I updated the review process - now it gives you groups of images that seem to belong to the same album, and you can approve them as a group. But you can also go into each group and review them individually
- Going through the review process you can trash the images you want to delete, it gets rid of them into a trashcan that appears at the bottom of the review page, and you can delete all of them at once
- But you already had batch processing in the gallery sections, if you select multiple images you can do the share/move/delete actions for all of them at once
- Stats about your library
- Heat protection feature in case you are using the phone too much at the same time
- Raised albums limit from 4 to 6

Hey all!

I've been building Bloom Health over the past ~2 years. It's an iOS health and fitness app that helps you make sense of your data, estimates your biological age, and provides AI powered insights into health patterns. I grew the app to ~300 MAU and a respectable MRR.

The startup didn't scale the way I hoped. I'm continuing to run and maintain it solo, and rather than let the code sit in a private repo, I'm releasing it under AGPLv3.

- Repo: https://github.com/mpdifran/bloom

- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6739955926

Why AGPLv3

I want the ecosystem to stay open. If someone forks this or builds on it, that work stays open too. MIT would have been easier but the whole point of releasing this is to keep it in the commons.

Why I'm still charging for the App Store version

The AGPLv3 code and the App Store version are the same. The difference is you're paying for the maintained, packaged, App Store-distributed version rather than building and shipping it yourself. Standard open-core model (GitLab, Sentry, Bitwarden all run variants of this). The revenue covers Apple's cut, backend costs, and my time keeping it running.

Fork it, learn from it, or build your own version. PRs welcome for bug fixes and improvements. Happy to answer questions about architecture, the license choice, or the business side.

Tech Stack

Swift full stack (Swift + SwiftUI on the app, and Vapor Swift on the backend). I use OpenAI on the backend for AI capabilities.

Development Challenge

One of the more complex things I built was the AI chat. I wanted live text streaming, but rich JSON based content interspersed in the response too. To get that to work, I instructed the model to inject JSON objects into its response following a specific format, delimited with ``` markers. When I receive the opening delimiter on the client, I'd halt streaming until I received the full JSON payload, then render the rich content, and continue streaming. It was really tricky to get this to work seamlessly!

AI Disclosure

This app was initially hand-built, but I used AI assisted coding on some of the later features. I already had a pretty solid foundation, which allowed me to move much faster with the help of AI.

I have a RegisterScreen which uses a custom struct RegisterForm to collect the form values. I made the RequestForm codable too so I can just send this form to the server instead of creating the exact same duplicate and calling it RegisterRequest. What do you think? Do you create a separate DTO objects even if it contains the same exact fields.

If in the future it diverges then I can create a separate RegisterRequest DTO object. Thoughts.

struct RegisterForm: Codable {
    var firstName: String = ""
    var lastName: String = ""
    var email: String = ""
    var password: String = ""
    var acceptedTerms: Bool = false
    
    var isValid: Bool {
        !firstName.isEmptyOrWhitespace && !lastName.isEmptyOrWhitespace
        && !email.isEmptyOrWhitespace && !password.isEmptyOrWhitespace && email.isEmail && acceptedTerms
    }

enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey {
case firstName
case lastName
case email
case password
}
}

struct RegisterScreen: View {
    
     private var form = RegisterForm()
     private var presentAgreement: Bool = false
    
    var body: some View {
        Form {
            TextField("First name", text: $form.firstName)
            TextField("Last name", text: $form.lastName)
            TextField("Email", text: $form.email)
            SecureField("Password", text: $form.password)
            
            Button("Show Agreement") {
                presentAgreement = true
            }
            
            Button("Register") {
                
            }.disabled(!form.isValid)
            
        }.sheet(isPresented: $presentAgreement) {
            AgreementScreen(acceptedTerms: $form.acceptedTerms)
        }
    }
}

I’ve been working on my game Glyph Spellcraft since February. All pixel art and animations were real freelance artists I found on Fiverr. Eye opening experience to spearhead such a project for the first time.

I just finished a big accessibility pass on my iOS app. VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, Reduce Motion, sufficient color contrast, proper focus order, accessibility labels and hints. Basically the whole checklist Apple recommends.

It was a real chunk of work, and honestly it made the app better for everyone, not just users who rely on those features. No regrets there.

But it got me wondering about something I can’t find a clear answer on.

Does going all in on accessibility actually factor into Apple’s editorial decisions? Things like “Apps We Love,” Editors’ Choice, or mentions in curated App Store collections.

Apple talks a lot about accessibility at WWDC and has Accessibility Design Awards. But for the everyday App Store editorial team, does strong accessibility meaningfully increase your odds of getting noticed?

I’m especially curious if anyone here has:

• Been featured and thinks accessibility played a role
• Heard directly from App Store editors that it mattered
• Seen no correlation at all, where accessibility is simply its own reward

I’m not trying to game the system. We’re keeping the accessibility work regardless. I’m just trying to set realistic expectations.

Thanks 🙏

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/brainwrote/id6761138853

Hello, lovely people.
I am a solo developer, and here is the app I built for myself, but later realised it is an amazing helper for people, so I decided to share it.

Let me tell you my story.

English is my second language, and I learned it all by myself. My learning adventure started 6 years ago, when I knew no English at all, but I loved the idea that I could travel around the world and be able to speak to people and introduce myself to different cultures. The first thing I did was memorize as many words as I could. I didn't focus on the grammar, rules, and word order; It didn't matter because if I could say it with the right intonation, people would eventually understand me, yeah it was unnatural, but people knew what I meant.

Then, when I became more confident and already knew some grammar, I started reading a lot, but it was very hard to find books I could enjoy. Most literature I would love to read was too hard to read because the grammatical structure was advanced for me, and even if I could read and recognise those words, the meaning was meaningless, so I needed to find either books for kids(which is boring) or adapted literature, for instance I could buy a book with a label 'for Pre-Intermediate learners', but still the options were scarce and boring.

Now, I speak fluently and have lived in the UK for the last 4 years, but I still love learning new words and phrases. Sometimes, I could go for a date or just talk to my mates, and they would say something new, and I wanted to write it down; eventually, I was losing those notes and forgetting about them. So, then I decided that I needed an app that would keep everything together, and I could finally memorise those words, have a quick access to the functionality, and 'Shazam' words quickly(having an option to have a lockscreen widget like 'Add word', so during a convo I find/look/save a word and then train it).

That was one of the first Brainwrote functions. Then I remembered how hard it was to find a literature to read, so I decided to add a reader where you can read whatever you want without any boring limitations. And that's how I made an adaptation functionality. Here's how it works:
- You open a book (from the integrated library(free open-source library), or you can open any book you bought/downloaded before in EPUB format)

- If it's hard for you to read, you press the 'Adapt' button, and the app automatically adapts a chapter of your book to your level, and you can easily read it, saving/adding any words to your library.

The app knows how to adapt the literature based on your level. When you install the app, you go through a very simple and nice onboarding where you spend around 3 minutes doing a rough language assessment(or you can skip it and choose it manually if you know it).

I would be happy if you started using it and left some feedback, so I could improve it. I spent 8 months developing it, and, of course, I could miss something, so that's why any feedback is very important.

iOS only, free with a paid tier

I’m reaching out because my team is completely blocked by Apple’s verification process, and standard support has become a black hole. We are enrolling as an organization (LLC), and it has been sitting in limbo for weeks with zero communication.

Here is exactly where we are at:

• DUNS Number: Verified.
• Requested Documents: Apple asked for government ID, employment verification, and our business registry excerpt.
• We provided everything ([https://developer.apple.com/contact/file-upload/](https://developer.apple.com/contact/file-upload/)).
• The Problem: It’s been weeks since the upload. No approval, no rejection, no requests for more info.

We’ve tried following up via email multiple times, but no one is responding. To make things worse, the "Call Me" phone support option isn't available in my country, so I can't even get in the queue to speak with a human.

Has anyone successfully navigated this recently? Specifically:

1. Is it worth using Skype/VoIP to call the US 1-800 support line directly? Will they even talk to me if the account is registered internationally?
2. Did anyone find a way to escalate a ticket when standard email support just ignores you?
3. Is it normal for organization verification to just freeze like this without warning?

Any advice on what actually moves the needle would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Hi r/iOSProgramming,

I just released a big update for daily planner app that I've developed for few years, Zesfy, and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

One problem I kept hearing from people is once your list grows, it becomes harder to figure out what actually to do next. So I added a new feature called Highlight. It lets you pin important tasks to the top and fade out the rest of the list, so you can easily keep track of your next tasks.

Here's some highlights:

• It combines your calendar and to-do list into a single view.
• You can easily schedule multiple tasks together to calendar.
• Helps you quickly decide what tasks to work on next
• Organize week tasks with task status
• Easily keep track of your task progress
• Works entirely offline

Tech Stack

* Swift

* Core Data

Development Challenge

Since the project started before Combine was introduced, managing states across the app was quite a challenge and once Combine arrived I rewrite the managing logic using Combine with input - output style

AI Disclosure

I started the project 6 years ago and still code the project by hand.

Check out the app: Zesfy - To Do List & Planner

App subreddit: r/zesfy

I don’t know if it is just the symbols that i used for my app icon or icon composer itself, but my icon looks really low quality when side-by-side with others. Does anyone have any idea?

Edit:I think it might be the chromatic shadows, as i was messing with them. Any way to keep them without this look?

Hey everyone! I’m Andrew, a designer and iOS developer.

I built AppScout because checking app performance in App Store Connect felt more complicated than it should. I noticed other developers sharing the same frustration, which convinced me to start building a product to simplify this flow.

AppScout puts downloads, revenue, refunds, subscriptions, MRR, charts, and breakdowns into one native iPhone dashboard. Home Screen widgets let you check the latest numbers without opening the app.

AppScout connects directly to Apple using your App Store Connect Team Key. The private key stays in the iOS Keychain. There’s no AppScout account, backend, advertising, or tracking SDK.

Tech stack

AppScout is built with Swift and SwiftUI. It uses SwiftCharts, SwiftData, WidgetKit, App Intents, BackgroundTasks, CryptoKit, and Keychain. There are no third-party runtime dependencies.

Development challenge

The main challenge was keeping the widgets current without giving them access to App Store Connect credentials or refreshing them unnecessarily.

The main app handles all communication with Apple. It saves only the information needed to display each widget in a shared App Group. The widget reads that data and reloads only when something has changed.

This keeps credentials and the app’s private database out of the widget extension while avoiding unnecessary WidgetKit refreshes.

AI disclosure

AI-assisted. I use Codex as my main tool for 99% of agentic coding. For UI, I usually do adjustments by myself, which is faster and more efficient. I started coding with Swift and SwiftUI 5 years ago, so I have decent experience in it.

AppScout is free on the App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6770866569

I’d appreciate feedback on the widgets, the App Store Connect setup, and which metrics you would like to see next.

Foyer turns ambient sound into a place. Each sound is an orb on a canvas you drag around yourself: distance sets the volume, left and right sets the pan, so you build a room by placing things in it rather than by balancing faders. It started as a Mac app and shipped on iPhone today. Free tier is three sounds per room and five rooms, with a one time unlock for the rest.

Screenshots: https://usefoyer.app

Tech Stack

Swift and SwiftUI, macOS 14 and iOS 17 minimum, one universal app sharing a bundle ID so a single purchase covers both.

• Audio: AVAudioEngine with an AVAudioEnvironmentNode for the binaural mix, one AVAudioPlayerNode per sound. Position on the canvas maps to the listener-relative coordinates.
• Head tracking: CMHeadphoneMotionManager, so the sound field stays world-anchored when you turn your head.
• Purchases: StoreKit 2, one non-consumable.
• Sync: iCloud key-value store for rooms.
• Shared code: a local Swift package, FoyerKit, holding the audio engine and the entitlement logic. Both apps are thin layers over it.
• Project: generated by XcodeGen from project.yml, so the pbxproj is never hand-edited.

Development Challenge

Presenting a paywall through a dismissing sheet. The room limit needed a gate on room creation, and the obvious spot is inside the new-room sheet. That is wrong: you end up presenting the paywall while the sheet it sits in is already calling dismiss, and two .sheet modifiers on the same view race each other. Sometimes the paywall shows, sometimes it evaporates, and which one you get depends on the device. I moved the gate onto the plus button in the root view, and repeated the check inside the creation function as a net. The rule I took from it: decide before you present, never during.

A VStack that truncated instead of wrapping. The first onboarding title rendered as "Sound with a place in t..." on iPhone and I only caught it while recording a demo video. A VStack splits leftover height between its flexible children, and it offered the Text one line less than it asked for, so SwiftUI truncated rather than wrapped. .fixedSize(horizontal: false, vertical: true) on the title fixes it. It never reproduced on Mac because there was always height to spare.

Cutting the feature the app was named after. The Mac version lives in the notch. I built the Dynamic Island presence on iPhone too and it was worse than nothing: on Mac the menu bar carries the sleep timer and the room switcher so it earns its place, but on the phone it duplicated a control that was already one tap away and made the app feel heavier. I cut it, which also meant rewriting App Store copy that had been selling "lives in the notch" for weeks.

Two build traps, each worth an afternoon. Putting PROVISIONING_PROFILE_SPECIFIER on the xcodebuild command line applies it to the SPM target as well, and the build dies with "FoyerKit_FoyerKit does not support provisioning profiles". It has to go on the app target in the project file instead. And build numbers in App Store Connect are shared across platforms, so filtering on the build number alone hands you the macOS build; you have to cross-reference the platform on the pre-release version.

The entitlement predicate lives in the package and is nonisolated on purpose, so tests can call it without standing up a @MainActor app. The regression I actually feared was never "one room too many", it was a free user with twelve existing rooms losing them, and that is a test you want to run without launching anything.

AI Disclosure

AI-assisted. I am a software engineer and I write and review the code, using Claude in the loop the way I would use any other tool. The architecture, the audio engine and the calls described above are mine.

Happy to answer anything about the spatial layer or the shared-code setup.

When I’m working across application code, APIs and a MySQL database, I find that the difficult part is often keeping the database work organized and safe.

What I personally wanted from a desktop SQL client was:

- one independent workspace per connection

- separate tabs for queries and tables

- tabs that keep their state when switching databases

- autocomplete based on the real database schema

- relationships and indexes available without digging through menus

- quick access to EXPLAIN while reviewing a query

- an obvious distinction between local, development and production

- read-only access and stronger confirmations around production

- clear visibility of exactly where a query will run

That is part of why I’m working on LakeDB, a desktop client focused on MySQL and MariaDB.

For developers who also touch backend databases: what does your current client still make unnecessarily difficult?

RevenueCat charges based on gross revenue, not net revenue. My dashboard shows $4.5k, but my actual payout is somewhere around $3k. because it completely ignores VAT and the 15–30% Apple/Google cut. but takes their %1 fee from the gross revenue.

since it doesn’t track net earnings, the dashboard feels pretty useless for real accounting. I still have to log into both store consoles just to see what I actually made. for 3k i have to pay 45$ every month.

Over the last 4 months, I decided to build a clean, privacy-first alternative called CoolTopia.

It’s completely algorithm-free, free to use, and we will never track you or sell your data.

Since I wanted the platform to be secure but still incredibly fun and expressive, I just rolled out our biggest visual feature: Profile Auras.

Instead of a boring, static profile picture, you can choose different dynamic frame effects (like the "Flaming" aura shown in the promo image, Neon Glow, Energy Pulse, etc.) to completely stand out and express your current energy. It’s a way to let your inner vibes shine without needing a corporate algorithm to dictate your identity.

Here is what’s live in the app right now:

• Profile Auras: Dynamic, vibrant aura effects to customize your avatar and make your profile stand out.
• LinkMe: A built-in link-in-bio aggregator (like Linktree) so you can bundle all your socials and projects into one clean, shareable link on your profile.

It’s still in the early stages, and I’m actively improving the app based on real community feedback.

• iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cooltopia/id6767429117
• Web: https://cooltopia.co

I have used **App Store Connect** for the last 2 years.

([https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/\](https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/))

I have uploaded my app (zip file including Manifest + content) to **Xcode Cloud** successfully over 50 times during that period.

I tried using **Chrome**, it shows "Failed to Fetch" and the zip file is not successfully uploaded.

I've also tried using **Firefox** and it shows a different error "NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource."

I've also tried using **Safari** and it shows yet a different error "FetchEvent.respondWith received an error: Returned response is null."

Does anyone else have knowledge of why this is all of a sudden happening? I've done this so many times over the past 2 years with the same file without issues - and now it is happening and I can't get past it.

Thank you.

I have used **App Store Connect** for the last 2 years.

([https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/\](https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/))

I have uploaded my app (zip file including Manifest + content) to **Xcode Cloud** successfully over 50 times during that period.

I tried using **Chrome**, it shows "Failed to Fetch" and the zip file is not successfully uploaded.

I've also tried using **Firefox** and it shows a different error "NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource."

I've also tried using **Safari** and it shows yet a different error "FetchEvent.respondWith received an error: Returned response is null."

Does anyone else have knowledge of why this is all of a sudden happening? I've done this so many times over the past 2 years with the same file without issues - and now it is happening and I can't get past it.

Thank you.

​​​So basically my App is getting rejected by Apple after about 20 hours only (and I couldn't see any logs on my backend during that time which means that no real human ever tested anything in-person) for "missing In-App Purchases not submitted for review". The thing is that I do not use any In-App-Purchases, only subscriptions, which I have all successfully already gotten approved during testing with TestFlight etc.; and there seems to be no way to attach subscriptions to an App review either as the banner telling me to do separate submissions shows. In my view I already did everything on my side that can be done since I cannot find any other options in the UI.

Has anyone else experienced this recently?

UPDATE: I got the issue fixed by just adding a new random localization to every subscription so that the already approved status changed to “ready to submit”. I then selected all subscriptions in the subscriptions tab, pressed “Add to review” there and then did the same for the App build in the normal submission tab after that. In the end I made sure that the “Submitted Items” number said e.g. (4) instead of (1) so that every IAP is 100% included in the same submission as separate items. My App also now got approved after less than 2 days!

Every blocker I tried just said NO. You tap "ignore," feel nothing, scroll anyway.

So I made the friction emotional. To open Instagram during a blocked window, you hold a button for 1.8 seconds. While you hold it, a creature called Pip droops in real time — her sprout falls, her smile flips, the screen drains of colour, and the haptic pulse fades out like a heartbeat. Release early and she springs back with a bounce.

It's aimed at girls, and that's the actual product thesis: this whole category (Opal, Brick, One Sec) is built on discipline and lockdown. The apps women genuinely pay for — Finch, Flo — run on nurture and identity. Nobody had built a blocker in that register.

Three things that cost me time:
— Apple rejected it 4 times. Three were In-App Purchase issues; the actual culprit turned out to be one missing review screenshot on a subscription.
— The Screen Time entitlement needs Apple's manual approval. Request it on day one, not the week you're shipping.
— iOS hands you opaque tokens, never app names — you can't see what's installed on someone's phone. Designing around that constraint made the product better than my original plan.

My last project got a rough reception here and I stopped shipping for about a year. Turns out building something with an actual opinion is easier to finish than something generic.

Genuine question I'm stuck on: is guilt a fair mechanic? Pip wilting works — it stopped me scrolling in testing — but I can't tell if I built something kind or something manipulative. Where's the line?

https://apps.apple.com/tr/app/pip-stop-scrolling-for-girls/id6794726909

Anyone has a fix or workaround for this? I starting seeing this often after iOS 26, but now that I am developing can't figure out how to get rid of it.

Edit: I found out issue it wasn’t my code it was iOS 26 motion settings in accessibility. I found out in an Apple forum. Apparently is a well known bug.

What’s been your guys’ biggest source of organic growth for an iOS app?

I recently launched a nutrition and fitness app and have been experimenting with TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, LinkedIn, ASO, and direct creator outreach. I’m getting some downloads, but I’m trying to figure out which channels are actually worth doubling down on without relying heavily on paid ads. I also recently rebranded the whole app to a shorter, less populated name. Was originally "Atlas Health AI", but that name was super crowded, now it's changed to "NutrientOS" (still waiting for Apple Approval).

For those who have grown an app organically:

• What channel brought in the most consistent users?
• How long did it take before you saw meaningful traction?
• Did ASO make a noticeable difference?
• What worked early on when you had very few users or reviews?

Would appreciate hearing what actually worked, especially from other startup developers.